Another week has flown by!

Yes indeed it has. We started Monday off by attaching all the slats to the rails of the fence. I'd hold the level and the slat, Brother B would screw the slats in. We just need to get a latch thing for the gate and we're done... Aside from staining it...

I know it looks like the rails are slanting one way and the distance from the top of the slats to the rails is going another way. That's just a trick of the lighting and the angle I took the picture from. They really are pretty level. Not perfectly level, but a lot more level than what the picture would lead you to believe.

Now that we've got the fence all but done, I've been gathering other stuff in preparation for my sisters dog to arrive. We've got him a giant bed from Costco, a couple of nylabones to chew on, and a bag of dog food. I need to get some of the rope toys that he likes and I think we're pretty well covered. He gets to eat and drink out of plastic containers until his box of stuff arrives. He flies in on United next Saturday.

I went a bit crazy on Monday and couldn't stand it any longer, so I went up to Shepherds Bush to pick out some linen for the Lizzie*Kate Mystery Sampler.  I got home and cut the linen, put it on the frame, and away I went.  I am stitching 2 over 2 on 28 count Thunderstorm.  The satin stitches in the saw tooth border look okay in the picture, but I don't like them when looking at them not in a picture.  I'm thinking of ripping them out and maybe filling in with just x's.

The sad thing is, that means that Flower Power has been set aside for now. I really want to keep up with Very Scary, and get it done as soon as I can as the sections of the pattern come out. Here is Flower Power when I took it off of the stand. I made some good progress on those green stems!

On Tuesday and Wednesday I spent time at the LDS Employement Services taking their Career Workshop. They have helps with interviewing and writing up resumes and all that good stuff. It's always nice to go in and have a refresher on that stuff.

Wednesday evening I was off to Salt Lake to see the Sound of Music put on by the Hale Centre Theatre. It was good. The play pretty much followed the movie and there wasn't anything new or surprising about the play itself. I more enjoyed watching the staging and seeing what their set designer had come up with. He's very clever and you can tell he loves his job by the little details and technical tricks he puts into things.

We have three season tickets to the shows there, and I couldn't get anyone to come with me this time. Brother B flatly refused to go, SIL A was afraid of getting car sick, my two best friends couldn't come, and SIL A's Mom and sisters were unavailable as well. So I went by myself. I sat in the middle of our three seats and hogged the armrests on both sides of me. Since I had requested seats with extra legroom, I enjoyed that space as well.

It was my birthday this past week, and that means at my house it's Annual Homemade Ice Cream day. I got out the freezer, mixed up a batch of Tutti Fruity and away we went! I will confess that it was a bit of a loosing battle, being about 100 degrees outside. I was running out of ice faster than the freezer could chill the cream and what not. In the end, I had to give up with a nice slush, but I poured it into containers and put it in the freezer. After a bit, I had good solid ice cream. Mmm mmm good!

Having homemade ice cream didn't stop me there. A local cupcake shop sent a coupon for a free birthday cupcake. So I went over and picked up a Strawberry Lemon-aid, a Lemon, a Coconut, and a Red Velvet cupcake. Sugartastic!

On the evening of my birthday MD decided she wanted to take me out to dinner, so after meeting with Mr. Trainer (which was free for my birthday!) we went over to Red Robin for burgers. I discovered they have a petite size on their bacon cheeseburger, so that helped with portion control, but it's still a large burger, and then there's just more room in the basket for fries.

After dinner we went over to Cold Stone creamery for dessert. Even though I got the smallest size they have, it felt like a lot of ice cream. After it all, I felt like Violet Beauregard in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the Gene Wilder version). I needed to be rolled home by and Oompa Loompa.

On Saturday I put together an antenna to pick up over the air tv. We ditched satellite a few months ago because of the cost. I really want to see the Olympics, so I've been working on getting an antenna up for the event. The directions were clear for putting the antenna together, but one of the warnings was: Warning - Do not attempt to install if drunk, pregnant or both. Do not throw antenna at spouse. (I kid you not. That is actually printed on my instructions.) Anyway, now that I've got it all put together, I need to get it rigged up and co-ax running into the house.

And finally, on Saturday, I wandered off to the tatting guild meeting. I finally got the right Saturday! There was another gal there who was also learning, but she is much further along than I am. She was very helpful with her her tips and what she's learned so far. I worked for a while and made a large ring, just practicing my knots. Then I did the two little loops to learn how to do a join. Finally I attempted the simple butterfly in the learn to tat book I'd purchased. Other than forgetting where I was with the size of my picots, I didn't put my first knot close enough to the base of the previous ring when I started my next ring. It's a bit of a mess. I need to learn how to place my knots a bit better, I think. I'm also pretty sure I wasn't keeping track as to which side was the front. I need to figure out how to do that so I know what I'm doing when it comes time to do all that reverse work stuff.

I'm slowly getting caught up on all the blogs that I like to read. I haven't been leaving any comments as I'm so far behind on everything. I'm also working on getting my adventures in Italy and Greece typed up so I should post those one of these days. Hopefully sooner than later, but you never know.

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay